Page Thirty-Five
THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, March 30, 1945
The Jewish Cinderella
How Regina Resnik, 22, Won
A Place in Metropolitan
BY PAUL GOULD
(Copyright, 1945, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
Regina Resnik can properly be called "the Yiddish Cinderella
who made good at the Metropolitan."
It was practically a Cinderella role that the 22-year-old Jewish
girl from the Bronx played in catapaulting overnight from obscuri-
ty to fame. Today she is acknowledged to be one of the great
dramatic sopranos of the distinguished Metropolitan Opera House,
a worthy successor to such fig-4
ures as Lily Pons, . Geraldine plause greeted her vocal efforts.
Farrar and Galli Curci.
Edward Johnson, who had asked
Hardly four months after her three other singers to take the
debut, the hard-bitten press part before he was forced to
broach the matter to the un-
known, was highly gratified. So
was Mr. Graf. History had in-
deed been made at tfie Metro-
politan—and by a Jewish star.
All in 75 Minutes
REGINA RESNIK
critics are still raving about her.
In their opinion "this is only the
beginning" and if there are
greater pinnacles to which she
can attain, they lie within easy
reach of her.
It was on Dec. 6,. 1944, that she
cast the die.
It happened that Zinka Mil-
anov, the featured artist in
"Trovatore," was suddenly
stricken with laryngitis. On 24
hours' notice Regina was sum-
moned and asked if she would
sing the role of Leonora. It was
a part she had never sung on
the stage before; she had never
witnessed this opera; she had
never studied the fourth act.
A Met Crisis
Regina never hesitated a min-
ute. When the brilliant curtains
of the Diamond Horseshoe
theater were drawn up, she was
the only person backstage who
was not nervous.
Standing in the back of the
house, unable to buy tickets
because of the 11th-hour selec-
tion of this substitute, were her
parents, Sam Resnick, manager
of the Lido Luggage Company,
a leather factory at 26 W. 17th
St., and Mrs. Ruth Seidel. Res-
nick. With them was their son,
Jack, 16 years old. They almost
chewed their nails down to the
roots.
But Regina—whose sole in-
clination to artistic temperament
seems to be the spelling of her
name as Resnik instead of. her
parents' Resnick—possessed the
calm of fatalism. When she told
Herbert Graf, the stage director,
that she had never seen "Trova-
tore," he almost passed out. It
was a crisis in the life of the
Met, for this young girl could
have marred the impeccable
reputation of the opera house by
cracking in her unusual debut.
But she succeeded as rarely
had a newcomer succeeded be-
fore. Wave after wave of ap-
It was then revealed that Mr.
Graf had permitted her only one
hour and 15 minutes to go over
the part that morning. To take
more time was to risk her be-
coming tired and spoiling the
performance, he said.
The meteoric career of Miss
Resnik then was unfolded be-
fore the mystified music world
to whom she was a veritable
stranger. As a child she attended
Herman Ridder High School in
the Bronx and When she was
graduated she studied at James
Monroe High School. From
there she matriculated at Hunt-
er College and here it was that
she first showed her remarkable
talent. Since Hunter has no men
students, she sang the male parts
in Gilbert and Sullivan operas,
parts which were considered
more difficult than the female
ones.
After • graduating from Hunter
in 1942, she launched her career
with a joint recital with John
Herrick, the baritone, at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Herrick was a well-known
artist and Miss Resnik learned
much from her association with
him. The result was that when
she made her_ operatic debut
that season with the New Opera
Company she was already well
on her way, though only 20
years old, to becoming a top-
flight star.
UPA Funds to Aid
Veterans Program
TEL AVIV (JPS-Palcor) —
Monies derived from the United
Palestine Appeal in the U. S. will
be used by the Jewish National
Fund and the Palestine Founda-
tion Fund which constitute the
UPA in the U. S. for a vast ser-
viceman's project, including the
purchase of several hundred
thousand dunams of land for
the purpose of settling 3,000 fam-
ilies of Jewish Palestine's ser-
vicemen, it was revealed by
Joseph Gurion, chief of the Jew-
ish Agency's Servicemen's Re-
habilitation Committee.
He said that 10,000 Jewish
Soldiers have registered their in-
tentions of settling on the land,
including 7,000 who were farm-
ers before joining the army and
3,000 who seek to learn farming.
The Jewish National Fund has
earmarked large areas of land
for this purpose, and five JNF
land areas, in Galilee and in the
Jordan Valley, are already being
developed by the. Palestine
Foundation Fund for several
soldier's settlement groups. One
of these settlements will bear the
name of Dr. Chaim Weizmann.
"Fidelio" with great success
there. On the day of her debut
in that part she was informed
by telegram that she was a final-
ist in the 1942-43 Metropolitan
Auditions of the Air, and would
have to come home at once or
forego the opportunity.
On March 17 of this year, Miss
Resnik again enacted the part of
Leonore in "Fidelio", an unusual
performance in that it was pre-
sented for the first time in
English. She was greeted by ac-
clamation.
Of special interest to De-
troiters is the information made
available this week that Miss
Regina Resnik will appear as
soloist with the Jewish Folk
Chorus, at the Scottish Rite
Cathedral of the Masonic Tem-
ple, under the direction of
Henri Goldberg, on Sunday
evening, May 13.
`When Hearts Sing' to be Staged
Sunday Night at Masonic Temple
"When Hearts Sing," the new
musical play which will be
brought to Detroit on Sunday
evening for a single showing on
the stage of the Scottish Rite
Cathedral of the Masonic Temple,
will feature two of the outstand-
ing stars of the Yiddish stage—
Samuel Goldenburg and Michal
Michalesko.
Abraham Littman, who is
sponsoring this stage presenta-
tion, stated this week that the
communities where the play has
already been presented speak in
glowing terms of its high qual-
ities.
The large assisting cast in-
cludes several very well known
names on the Yiddish stage, in-
cluding Roseta Bialis, Sylvia
Feder, Sarah Gingold, Anna Le-
Vine, Mildred Block, Leon
Charas, Jacob Zanger, Leon
Schechter, Ben Zeidman and
others.
Tickets for the performance
are available at Littman's home,
1927 Pingree, TY. 6-9186; Metro
Music House, 10328 Dexter, TO.
8-4114; Atkins Confectionary,
12th and Lee PI., TY. 2-8889 or
TY. 2-8884, or at the Masonic
Temple, TE. 2-6648, on the day
of the performance on Sunday.
'Original Writings' Program
Of Kvuizah Saturday Night
A Passover program for the
presentation of original writings
by members will be carried out
Saturday evening at :the Rose
Sittig Cohen Bldg., by Kvutzah
Ivrith.
Myer Mathis will be chairman
of this evening's program dur-
ing which members will read
original essays, poems, etc.
The public is invited. Admis-
sion is free.
Passover
Greetings
Use of Palestine Wines
For Passover Urged Here
NEW YORK, N. Y.—An ap-
peal to the Jews of America to
use Palestine wine during Pass-
over, was issued by the Palestine
Economic Bureau of the Zionist
Organization of America. While
shipments have been curtailed
due to the war, there is still a
quantity of this wine available
for consumption here.
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French Village—tviaiestIc Building
The Park Lunch—Park & Adams
Aztec Tower—Union Guardian Bldg.
Went to Mexico
A month later, on Nov. 29,
she was one of the two singers
on the Metropolitan Auditions
of the Air over WJZ. In singing
the Entrance song from Verdi's
"Lady Macbeth", said one critic,
she proved herself of operatic
caliber and the possessor of a
good voice.
Incidentally, the other singer
was William Hargrove, also a
new Metropolitan artist.
But before she made her de-
but at the Met, Miss Resnik
found her two years with the
New Opera Company and with
the New York City Center
Opera Company most instruc-
tive.
One of her trips took her to
Mexico City in 1943 where she
was featured at the Opera Na-
cional, the leading musical house
in that city.
A treasured memory is as-
sociated with Mexico City. She
sang the role of Leonore in
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GREETINGS
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PASSOVER
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A Happy
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To the Rabbi, Officers and Members
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Mr. & Mrs. Jos. A. Block
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